NBA Trades: The Mavericks land Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat in mock deal.
After Houston, the Dallas Mavericks take a stab at acquiring Butler. While Dallas may not exactly be Butler's home in Houston, it's close enough and the Mavericks, having reached the NBA Finals just last season, are at this point further along as contenders despite sitting behind Houston in the standings.
The complication for the Mavericks is a bit more monetary than asset-related. Dallas is set to pay both Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving within the next two seasons. While those two decisions will be virtual no-brainers, the decision to tie another large excess of funds into Butler is not so easy.
Finally, there's the difficulty of matching salary in a deal. The packaged used in the article for instance cannot legally be made as the Mavericks are hard-capped at the first apron. This doesn't mean a trade is impossible, just that the proposed trade is. But, we'll forgive that, and focus on the value changing hands instead.
The offer: Klay Thompson, Maxi Kleber, Quentin Grimes, one of Daniel Gafford or P.J. Washington, a future pick swap
Looking at the offer, the Heat don't receive the same level of draft comp compared to the Houston deal, but more than that, they receive an army of role players for a star. It very much resembles the classic three-for-one fantasy football trade offer. Your team will have more total valuable pieces, but with only so many spots to play them, you're probably better off with the better player.
In Miami's case, Klay Thompson is fine for the team's timeline but doesn't extend it by any means. Meanwhile, the inclusion of either Daniel Gafford or P.J. Washington holds tremendous weight for both sides Gafford is a fantastic player, thriving since arriving in Dallas. Miami though has three-time All-Star Bam Adebayo, and are unlikely to play him at the four.
Washington would be a far more welcome inclusion and would make a deal easier for Dallas to facilitate, but aside from playing Butler as a small-ball four, especially considering forward Naji Harris would likely need to be included to make the deal legal under the current CBA.
The issues for Dallas continue to manifest in that they would be moving three players while only replacing one. That loss of depth is not easily replaced this late in the season, aside from the buyout market, which is more often than not romanticized.
It's fine, but far from great for either side. Both could do better in respective deals.